IJV Statement on MS St. Louis Apology

November 7, 2018

Today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is slated to deliver an official apology for the Canadian government’s role in turning back the MS St. Louis. The ship, which was carrying over 900 Jewish refugees, attempted to dock in Halifax in 1939 before it was turned away by Canadian immigration officials. Over 250 of the ship’s passengers were later murdered in Nazi death camps in Germany.

The decision by Canadian officials to refuse entry to Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Europe reflects the antisemitic and xenophobic bigotry shaping Canadian immigration policies at the time, which saw the admission of fewer than 5,000 Jewish refugees between 1933 and 1945. Such policies can be succinctly described with the refrain from a Canadian immigration official who, when asked how many Jewish refugees would be admitted after the war infamously replied, “none is too many”.

Within the Jewish Tradition, there is a concept called T’shuvah, or “making amends”. This concept is prefaced on the immediate halting of the harmful action followed by concrete, tangible steps to rectify it, including a steadfast commitment not to repeat such harms in the future.

For Trudeau’s apology to be meaningful, he must commit to ending the ongoing detention of migrants, that seesthousands of people — including children — jailed in immigrant detention centers each year, at times indefinitely,on stolen Indigenous land.

On this episode, we focused on the anti-Jewish immigration laws of the 1920s and 1930s & how they relate to the present. We spoke with Syed Hussan (a migrant justice organizer in Toronto) about the Canadian government's upcoming apology for turning away Jews fleeing the Nazis, and how this fits into Canada's immigration history. We […]

On this episode, we spoke with Aya Alghazzawi - a Palestinian student and activist in Gaza, as well as Ali Abunimah - co-founder and Director of the Electronic Intifada. We talked about life in Gaza, the Great March of Return, and how to understand the current wave of Israeli repression. Show Notes: https://wp.me/p6SqlI-bl

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